LIBERTY IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR

Emily Tanis

    We are losing our liberty.  Turn on the television, glance through the newspaper, flip on the radio: boy robbed, girl raped, mother beaten, father shot.  Violent crime has gone up 560% in the last 30 years according to William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education.  Liberty?  Is this a time of liberty?  We have become prisoners in our own homes.  Freedom is squelched by the gruesome trend called violence.  But for some reason or another, Americans stand by and watch it happen until it hits them.  We are not willing to fight for our liberty.  Just as our liberty is threatened, the liberty of the America of long ago was threatened.  Like today, many people of the late 1700s were not willing to fight for liberty.  But there was a young man who was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, who convinced many that liberty was worth fighting for.  America, we need to go back in time and listen to one of the most brilliant orators of the American Revolution--Patrick Henry.

    In 1775, the colonists of early America were being choked by Great Britain with increasing control such as Mercantilism, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and the Intolerable Acts.  They felt the injustice of taxation without representation.  Although things became continually worse, many were not doing anything about it.  They held onto a false hope that things would fix themselves.  Patrick Henry realized that they needed a change of attitude.  On March 28, 1775, he addressed the Virginia Convention of Delegates with a speech that is today seen as one of the best ever given.  You are all familiar with his famous words: "Give me liberty, or give me death!"  But in that same speech, there is another key line in which he said.  "The battle...is to the vigilant, the active, the brave."  Less than one month after his speech, fighting erupted at Lexington and Concord.

    He warned them to be vigilant, to look around them and realize that things were bleak.  He told them that they would soon become slaves to Britain.  He states, "Our chains are forged!  Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston."  In this same way, we have become slaves to violence.  A recent article in the Atlantic Monthly reads: We no longer go out at night.  We no longer let our children walk to a friend's house to play.  We install locks, carry Mace, and readily pay more for apartment buildings with security (Robinson 72).

    Patrick Henry encouraged the colonists to be active.  The people complained that they were too weak, that there was nothing they could do.  He told them, "Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?"  He states, "If we wish to be free...we must flight!  I repeat it, sir, we must fight.  An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us."  America today must also be active.  We are passive in the way we accept violence, saying, that's just the way life is.  We standby and say, I'm just one person, I'm weak, there's nothing I can do.

    Patrick Henry challenged the colonists to be brave.  He told them, "There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.  We must also be brave in the war against violence.  It may involve putting yourself at risk, but will be worth it in the end.

    "The battle...is to the vigilant, the active, the brave."  These words spoke to those whose war with Britain was inevitable.  This shall speak to America today who is already in a bloody war with violence.  The enemy is within our own society.  You don't need to be told who's winning.  We must fight back.  We must be vigilant, active, and brave.  Only then will we free our streets of gangs and drug dealers.  Only then will we bring safety to our homes and schools.  We must change our attitude.  We cannot be passive and fearful.  We must be filled with conviction.  Ignite the spirit of fighting for liberty.  We must live today with the passion and dedication of Patrick Henry, who said, "Give me liberty or give me death."  Liberty is worth fighting for.

WORKS CITED

Bennett, William. "The Index of Lending Cultural Indicators." A 22-page report on moral and social behavior In America. 1992.

Copeland, Lewis, ed., and Lamm, Lawrence, ed. The World's Greatest Speeches.  New York: Dover, 1958.  All quotations from Patrick Henry are from his speech on pages 232-234.

Robinson, Paul H. "Moral Credibility and Crime." Atlantic Monthly March 1995: 72-78.
 

For queries regarding this website:  contact [Joel Burkland].
Last updated: August 26, 2008.

                                   
            Free counters provided by Honesty.com.